Publisher's Summary

Malinche was the Amerindian woman who translated for Hernan Cortès - from her lips came the words that triggered the fall of Moctezuma's Aztec empire to the Spanish in 1521. In Mexico Malinche's name is synonymous with "traitor". Yet folklore and legend still celebrate the mystique of this remarkable young woman. Malinche became a slave to strangers when just a girl, and was then passed on to Cortès as a concubine. She became his interpreter, indispensible to his campaigns, and mother to his son, only to be married off to another conquistador. Anna Lanyon journeys across Mexico and into the past to excavate the mythologies for the truer account of this resilient woman.

Although the author doesn't unveil any new "evidence" about Malinche that we already know, she does uncover new "proof" about her journey from birth to her death, filled in with remarkable accounts from sources that create a much fuller picture about who the "mortal female being was, is, and in so many ways still represents the muted or defused regard for women who've made history. Great story, but oh I wish she could pronounce the native names more accurately!! My dos centavos!